Christie goes mum on creationism

Star Ledger Photo | JOHN O'BOYLEGov. Chris Christie would rather not discuss his views on creationism.

Gov. Chris Christie says his views on creationism are “none of your business.”

Yes, actually — they are our business, governor. You made it our business when you said you have no objection to public schools teaching creationism alongside evolution.

The governor says this is a local issue, whether or not schools instruct children that God created humans and the Earth and the heavens. In fact, as he well knows, the state decides exactly what should be taught in each subject each year. Evolution is taught, and creationism is not. That’s because there are thousands of pages of peer-reviewed scientific research that back up the teaching of evolution. Not so for creationism, which is a religious idea, not a scientific one.

Christie’s dismissal was telling for a governor who had only a year ago pledged to answer “directly, straightly, bluntly,” so “nobody in New Jersey is going to have to wonder where I am on an issue.”

“I think they’ve had enough of politicians who make them wonder,” Christie had said of voters. “They make them wonder so they get an escape hatch.”

Maybe that’s exactly what Christie needs, if he’s being groomed by national conservatives for a bigger office. By contrast, the state’s acting education commissioner, Christopher Cerf, made his own views perfectly clear: “I don’t think creationism has any place in a science course,” he said.